“We’re not sure if there was more puffer fish, or just a bit on Angelina’s plate. The officers examined the dishes and took away the platter of fried fish for testing. That could take a while. And I agree, along with asking why Angelina was targeted, finding out how it got on her plate is important.” Leander ran a hand through his hair, a move she hadn’t seen him make very often. He seemed more frustrated with this case than the last two. “If someone purposefully fried up poisoned fish for your whole group…” He didn’t finish the sentence but Kitty could see by the set of his mouth how angry he was. “I keep imagining what would have happened to you.”
“And you, too, unless you weren’t planning on eating anything.”
He nodded. “True. I guess I’d be dead so I wouldn’t really care.”
“You don’t want to be left behind?”
“Not if I can help it. Then again, Yoko Ono says every time we don’t say what we want to say, we’re dying. So, maybe I’m already dead and don’t know it.”
She wanted to laugh, but she was reminded of how she held her cell phone and couldn’t bring herself to text him. It seemed such a silly thing to be afraid of now that he was right there in front of her. She had always thought her life was exactly the way she wanted it, and now she suspected she let fear dictate her actions much more than she realized.
The front door of the dive shop swung open and they both turned around to see Penny, Elaine, Toto, and Chica. The elderly women were wearing knit dresses with a dog paw print pattern, red for Elaine and blue for Penny.
“Well, well. Wouldn’t this make a fine Christmas card?” Penny signed. She pulled out her camera and motioned them to stand closer together. Chica bounded toward Kitty and after a few licks and her usual brief inspection, sat at Kitty’s feet.
“Starling, Swift and Chica, gumshoes for hire,” Leander intoned, signing for Elaine and Penny. “This could be our business card.”
She snorted. “Gumshoes? Maybe private eyes?”
“How about slewfoot?” It was a good thing he finger spelled the word because Kitty had never heard of it.
“Slew―?” Kitty couldn’t help laughing. “You made that up.”
“Did not.” He smiled down at her. “It’s a real word.”
Elaine waved to get their attention. “As much as I adore being in the presence of young love―” Kitty started protest but Elaine went on, “we have a murderer to catch.”
“We?” Leander asked, turning to Kitty.
Kitty avoided his gaze as she followed Penny and Elaine back to the dive shop. “I forgot to tell you. There might be a few more names on those business cards.”
Chapter Nine
“Those who shun the whimsy of things will experience rigor mortis before death.”
― Tom Robbins
Kitty was surprised to see Andrew, Jenny and Ren already awake and sitting around the table.
“Y’all been out partying?” Andrew asked. His flowered shirt was only half buttoned and his chest hair looked like a small animal trying to escape. “We’re gonna go back to Punta Molas. There’s treasure to be had. We’re scraping together a bribe so the police will let us in.”
As she translated for Penny and Elaine, Kitty saw Penny’s look of disgust. Elaine rolled her eyes to heaven.
“Of course they’re not,” Ren said. “They just came from the hospital. Remember Angelina?”
“Oh, yeah. Sure.” Andrew had the decency to look mildly ashamed of himself.
“How is she?” Jenny asked. She was fiddling with the red yarn tying the end of her braid, a movement Kitty recognized as something Jenny did when she was anxious. She was still wearing long sleeves and pants. Apparently her laundry issue hadn’t been resolved.
“She’s on life support. It all depends on how fast her body can metabolize the poison,” Leander said.
“That’s good, right? She might survive.” Ren squeezed Jenny’s hand and she gave him a small smile.
“Mark is staying with her.” Kitty sat down at the table. “How will you all get out to Punta Molas?”
The three exchanged glances.
“Because we were thinking of going, too,” Kitty hurriedly explained. “Just to visit the lighthouse and take a better look around.”
Ren looked hesitant but finally said, “We’re going with Angelina’s brother.”
“He owns a dive shop nearby?” Leander asked.
“Right down the street. I guess there was some tension between Angelina and Mark over the whole thing. She was considering leaving here and working for them. Mark really hated the idea of her giving up her salary and freedom just because she felt guilty.” Ren shrugged. “Her brother said it was disloyal for her to work for Coleman when the family business needed her, especially since she spoke English.”
Elaine signed a question and Kitty translated. “Why didn’t she want to work there?”
“Well, I guess they weren’t real nice to her. And they’d had a few problems with the law,” Andrew said. “Drugs or something.”
Kitty met Leander’s gaze. Drugs or something was no small thing. The cartels were notoriously violent, and if Angelina’s brother encroached on their territory, it was a death sentence for all involved.
The times she’d seen Mark and Angelina argue rushed into her mind, and Kitty realized that she’d misunderstood. She’d thought was Mark bullying Angelina, but he’d been afraid her safety and angry that she would consider putting herself in danger.
“Well, we should get going,” Jenny said, standing up. Ren and Andrew followed her lead. “We’ll see you guys there, maybe.”
After they’d gathered their things and left the courtyard, Leander signed, “I think we should get something to eat and then head that way. It shouldn’t be too hard to find a boat.”
“Agreed.” Penny sighed. “I just wish we could go diving once more. But if it’s closed except to locals…”
“Wait. Aren’t you locals?” Kitty asked.
The three of them stared at her for several seconds until Penny started to smile. “Well, I’ll be. I think you’re right. With our house in Playa Mezcalitos, we’re certainly islanders. Not sure if we have to be from Punta Molas, but it’s worth a try.”
“We’ll watch Toto for you while you dive,” Kitty said, feeling the familiar rush. The next best thing to finding the treasure would be Penny and Elaine finding treasure.
“Great plan,” Leander said, already headed for the kitchen. “And as soon as I get some food, I’m good to go.”
“True,” Kitty said. She didn’t feel hungry but if they had a long day ahead, she’d need more in her stomach than coffee.
Following him into the kitchen, Kitty looked around. “Do you think it’s safe to cook in here?”
He nodded. “They removed all the dishes that were used. I’ll make sure whatever ingredients I use are unopened.” He started to look through the large industrial fridge. He pulled a sealed packaged of shrimp from the freezer, a package of bacon from the fridge, and some vegetables from the bins.
Penny’s eyes widened. “This is breakfast? Whatever happened to oatmeal?”
“Technically, we never got dinner. In about ten hours, I’ll make some oatmeal, okay?” He winked to soften his retort.
“Looks perfect to me,” said Elaine, plopping onto a stool at the counter. “But while we’re here, we need to remember who came into this kitchen.”
“Mark, Angelina, Jenny and Lisa. But I think we need to look at who was close to her dish, too. Did she serve herself?” Nobody could remember and Kitty frowned at the tomato on the board. “Chica bumped Lisa out of the way. Andrew was on her other side. There was so much movement and distraction with the dog that it would have been easy to put it on her plate if they were close enough.”
Leander was busy wrapping bacon around shrimp so he didn’t respond. Kitty liked that he signed as he spoke. He’d been raised in a hearing impaired household and he knew how rude it was to cut some people from the conver
sation.
Penny handed Elaine an onion, took a bell pepper, and nodded at Kitty. It was time to get cooking.
As she chopped the tomato, she thought of his reaction to her revelation of her impending hearing loss. He had understood what a grievous loss it would be, but he didn’t seem shocked. Then again, if he never considered a future with her, it wouldn’t matter that much.
She glanced up at him. Again, he’d discovered much more about her than he’d volunteered about himself. He never seemed to be purposefully mysterious. Or at least, not after their first meeting when he had dodged every question she’d asked. But here it was, months later, and aside from listing his degrees, Kitty could count on one hand the things she knew about Leander. He was from Tallahassee, was Catalan and spoke fluent Catalan, Spanish, and American Sign Language. His mother was deaf and had passed on Waardenburg’s Syndrome to him. He had an office in Playa Del Carmen. He could cook and Chica liked him. That was it. She didn’t know if he had siblings, if he’d ever been married, if he had children.
The idea that Leander might have children was a shock. He was probably over thirty. It wouldn’t be too strange if he’d been married, had kids, gotten divorced, moved to Mexico to work in the embassy.
Kitty watched Leander carefully rolling bacon onto shrimp and rejected the idea. He wouldn’t live away from his children. He’d want to be involved. She didn’t know how she knew. She just did.
He glanced up, caught her staring and raised an eyebrow. “Yes?”
“Oh, I was just…” Do not blush. Do not blush. She inwardly flailed around, looking for something to say. It probably looked as if she had been admiring him, or maybe daydreaming. Chica stood up and nudged her knee, sensing her distress. “Just thinking about your kids.”
“My― my kids?”
Penny and Elaine had stopped chopping and were giving them their full attention.
No, no. Not kids. She rushed to explain. “I was just thinking that if you got married, had kids, then got divorced, you’d want to live close to them.” That sounded much worse. She sighed. “I’m really tired.”
He looked as if she’d started speaking Klingon, but he nodded and went back to wrapping bacon around the shrimp and spearing it with a toothpick.
Penny and Elaine were giving her matching expressions of glee. Kitty ignored them and focused on her tomato. It was the exhaustion talking. Chica nudged her leg and looked up at her as if to ask if she was okay. She wasn’t really, but she would be when she got something to eat. “It’ll be okay,” she whispered to Chica. They just needed to catch a killer, that was all. No big deal.
Half an hour later, the four of them sat back with a satisfied expression. Chica and Toto still looked hopefully at the empty plates on the table, eager to lick them clean.
“And he can cook,” Penny signed.
“I’ll fight you for him, Kitty.” Elaine put up both fists.
“Forget about it.” Penny giggled. “You’ll need a reverse aging potion. He doesn’t want an old lady like you or me.”
Leander’s face had gone red and Kitty took a moment to be grateful they weren’t teasing her for once. Sending him a sympathetic look, she tried to change the subject. “I love your dresses. I didn’t get a chance to tell you earlier.”
“Thanks. They have pockets,” Elaine said.
“And if she has a dress with pockets, she has to tell everybody. It’s like a rule with her.” Penny rolled her eyes. “I’m going to have her buried in a dress with pockets so she’ll be happy in the afterlife.”
“Better not. I’ll still be telling people at the funeral. I’ll sit up and say, ‘It has pockets’ and they’ll all be amazed.” Elaine nodded confidently. “And make sure my shoes are good, too. I don’t want to be buried in ugly shoes.”
“So you want flippers.”
“No, no flippers.” Stacking the plates, Elaine frowned so furiously that Kitty started to laugh.
“We’ll get the dishes. You two go get ready,” Leander said. “It’s almost seven. The boats are probably headed out.”
“We’ve just got to change. Ready in a jiffy.” Penny tugged Elaine from the table and Toto followed them to their room.
Kitty and Leander gathered up the plates and took them to the kitchen. A few minutes of rinsing, stacking in the dishwasher, and wiping down surfaces and they were done. Just as Leander reached for the kitchen towel, his phone buzzed.
He glanced at the screen. “Detective Soledad,” he whispered to Kitty and pushed the button. She stayed quiet as he had a short conversation.
“More autopsy results,” he said, looking thoughtful. “The blood found on the side of the Freedom Ring I was his. So he was killed on that boat, then it was brought back to the dive shop, and your group went out in the morning in Freedom Ring II. Also, no water in the lungs, like we suspected. He was dead before he went into the water.”
“Back in,” Kitty reminded him. “There was no oxygen in his tank. He’d already been out and returned to the boat.”
Leander rubbed his head. “So, he goes out with someone. They dive separately. The killer returns first. When Coleman tries to get in the boat, he’s stabbed, then pushed back in. Most likely for the treasure. And if Angelina’s poisoning is related, it has to be someone from this group.”
“But if the killer has the treasure, then they wouldn’t want to go diving again. That rules out Andrew, Jenny, and Ren.”
“Unless they were hiding it from the others.” Leander looked around the kitchen. “We should search the―”
Lisa popped into the kitchen. Kitty would have said she walked, except the way she stuck her head through the doorway was more of a jack-in-the-box effect.
“There you are,” she crooned. “We never got to go out last night. I hope you’re going to be here this evening. The Blue Dolphin is so much more fun when there’s someone to dance with other than Andrew.”
Leander smiled. “Sounds fun. But I’m hoping we can place someone under arrest today for the murder of Coleman Larson, and if that happens I’ll have to go straight back to Playa del Carmen.”
She looked disappointed, her bright red lips turning downward. “Any ideas?”
“Nothing firm yet,” he said.
“Well, then let’s say eight o’clock.” With a wink, she disappeared.
Leander grimaced. “In case I needed incentive…”
***
Kitty and Leander stood with Chica and Toto, watching the boat take Penny and Elaine out to the reefs once more. There was heavy police presence, but the waters were dotted with local divers. Kitty had been prepared for resistance from the local police chief, but either he was charmed by the elderly women, or their “contribution” of one hundred dollars had been enough to make them locals.
Scanning the coast, Kitty spotted several signs advertising scuba diving trips. The dock stretched out into the reefs, and she’d heard most boats moored there during the night dives when they didn’t bring a crew to stay aboard. If Coleman had gone out with just a few people from the group, he would likely have moored the boat and taken personal dive lights when he went down to the reef.
She couldn’t see Andrew, Ren, or Jenny, but that wasn’t surprising since they had left several hours earlier. The lighthouse stood tall in the distance, its faded red and white stripes begging for a photo.
Leander must have had the same idea because he took out his phone and snapped a few pictures. Glancing at Kitty, he hesitated before asking, “Do you― I’m not much for selfies, but maybe we can…”
“Sure,” Kitty said a little too quickly. She wasn’t a selfie type, either. Her curly hair always morphed into something untamable when someone pulled out a camera, and her perpetually pink nose turned redder, it seemed. But a picture with Toto, Chica, and Leander seemed too good to pass up.
After several minutes of trying out possible combinations, they settled on Toto and Chica in front with Leander and Kitty in back. Chica understood she was to stand perfectly stil
l, but Toto kept glancing back at the two of them, like a confused toddler. After the tenth perfect picture of Chica, Kitty, and Leander that was ruined by the back of Toto’s head, Kitty decided to throw a pebble just as Leander took the photo. Miraculously, it worked, and Toto looked forward just as Leander snapped the picture. Unfortunately, Kitty’s face was contorted with the effort of throwing the stone, but at least the dogs looked good.
They moved toward the row of businesses lining the dock. The first one was manned by an elderly gentleman with few teeth.
“Buenos dias,” Leander said. He spent a few minutes trading comments on the sky, the temperature, and the number of tourists. The first time Kitty had heard Leander speak Spanish, she’d noticed a little bit of an accent but now it was more pronounced, as it was when they were in the hospital. It reminded her of how her signing grew looser and less exact when she was tired.
She shifted her feet, trying not to look bored as the topic turned to fishing. Kitty knew how rude it was to launch into a question without some pleasantries, but she felt her stomach knot with nerves. They were going to be there all day if they had to shoot the breeze with every mom and pop shop on the dock.
“I was wondering―” Leander said, moving slowly into his first question.
“I don’t know where the treasure is.” The old man tipped his hat over his eyes as if that was the end of the conversation.
“Of course not. I was wondering if you’d seen some friends of mine.” Leander pulled out his phone and scrolled through his photos. Kitty saw he had copies of the group’s passport photos, and several informal ones, as well. She wondered if he had any of her, before the awkward-faced selfie she’d just produced.
The man peeked out from under his hat. “No.”
Leander pulled a few bills from his pocket. “Perhaps you could look again?”
He frowned but leaned forward to snag the money from his hand. After a few moments of Leander scrolling, the man shook his head again. “No.”
Danger at the Dive Shop Page 9
